Implementing Agile Approach to Change Management: A Study of Lewin's 3-Step Model

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Introduction
In the course of this essay the 3 step Change management model of Lewin have been
considered by the researcher. The three stages of this model, namely unfreezing, changing
and refreezing have been contextualised with the change approach, namely, Agile approach
of change procedure. Hence in the initial part of the essay, the ways in which the change
procedure would progress in the freezing and changing stages of the model have been
highlighted. The challenges as well as feasibility is regarding the implementation of agile
approach based on the theoretical overview have been identified here also. In the next stage
the difficulties that the organisations need to overcome in the course of implementing Agile
approach have been referred to in relation to the third stage of the Lewin's model. In the final
part of this is a, the journal article of Study and Grey have been considered. In the light of the
research conducted in the article, the researchers have analysed the complexities and
limitations of the original model that has been discussed in the course of this essay.
Thesis Statement: The Lewin's Change Management model have been identified in this
essay for the purpose of contextualising the Agile approach to change with the
organisational work structure. In this context the states of implementing the Agile
approach to change have been demonstrated based on the three step Change management
model. The Change management ideologies of the journal article by Sturdy and Grey
heaven consulate and the limitations of Change management model of Lewin have also
been identified here.
Discussion
Lewin’s Change Management model have been selected as the preferable change
management model in order to address the change initiative, as in ‘Moving towards Agile’.

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This model is primarily concerned with the ways of overcoming the resistances that comes in
the way of implementing change management in the scope of any organisational change. As
advocated by Cummings, S., Bridgman and Brown (2016), many of the internal and external
stakeholders of any agency would resist any new change. Therefore, the first stage of the
change management process, as advocated in this model should be unfreezing wherein the
change managers of any organisation attempts to recognise the agents that resists the change
in the organisation. As advocated by Bakari, Hunjra and Niazi (2017), the resisting agents to
change can be perception or thought process of the people in the organisation, old mode of
organisational behaviour and organisational structure.
Communication is an essential factor at this change of the Lewin’s Model. This is
because the employees as well as the other stakeholders need to be informed about the
imminent change, the logic behind the need to implement the change and how the employee
would be benefitted out of implementation of the change (Hayes 2018). The principle idea
behind this stage of the model is to increase the awareness related to the change and in turn
make the employees perceive that the change is necessary as well as urgent. As such, all the
organisational forces would be highly motivated to implement the change.
The change initiative that is undertaken for analysis in this essay is ‘Moving towards
Agile’. This change initiative necessitates the organisations to shift from the traditional
methods to the agile methods for increasing the alignment with the client needs, reduction of
risk cover as well as increase the speed to value in the course of the lifecycle of the project.
That is why, Serrador and Pinto (2015), suggests that pilot projects need to be undertaken by
the organisation involving the project managers so that they understand the importance of
agile approach. As an impact of the pilot project launch, the organisational managers who are
handling the projects would be able to understand how to handle the employees in the course
of the project life time.

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The next stage of the Change Management process is “Changing”. As the stakeholders have
already been unfrozen in the previous phase, they are now ready to start moving. The second
stage that is the changing stage is the Lewin’s Change Management model, is associated with
the implementation of the process of change. This is the high time when the people who are
concerned with bringing about the change, struggle most with the dealing with the new stage
of reality in terms of operations in the organisation (Rasnacis, A. and Berzisa, S., 2017). The
stakeholders tend to learn the new behaviours, ways of thinking as well as process that are
involved in the new operations in the concerned departments. There is an immense impact of
the previous stage on this stage. The implementation of this stage, as in the acceptability of
the stakeholders to learn and eagerly implement the new change procedure depends on how
well they have been groomed in the previous stage. This is why, Larson and Chang (2016),
professes that in this stage, that the agents of change in any organisation, for evidence the
project planners who are bringing about new changes in the methodology of project
execution, should take regular sessions of the employees or the other stakeholders associated
with the process of new change.
The Changing phase for the Move to Agile mechanism is the most important phase of
change management. There are two aspects that needs to be considered in this phase for
moving with agility. The first part is concerned with how to overcome the barriers to manage
the people (concerned with implementing the change procedures) effectively. The second part
is accepting feedback from the concerned stakeholders regarding their feasibilities or
challenges in the way of implementing the change procedure. So far as moving with agility is
concerned, it requires specific mention that, the project planners as well as executive
departmental heads should be keeping in mind that it is essential to identify three different
key motivating factors so that moving with agility can be considered as an absolute enterprise
approach (Rasnacis and Berzisa 2017). The factor is enhancing the speed of deliverance of